PLACE TYPE

Provinces

Eastern Afghanistan

Laghman

A green, well-watered valley province in eastern Afghanistan, where Aramaic inscriptions of Ashoka were found and the emperor Babur often stayed.
Central Afghanistan

Kapisa

Afghanistan’s smallest province, a cluster of populous valleys north-east of Kabul that carries the name of an ancient kingdom.
Central Afghanistan

Wardak

A high, mountainous province just west of Kabul, where the Kabul River rises and Hazara highland valleys meet Pashtun farmland.
South-eastern Afghanistan

Logar

A green river valley south of Kabul, home to the ancient copper-mining and Buddhist site of Mes Aynak and the Sufi shrines of Charkh.
Central Afghanistan

Ghor

High mountain country at the western end of the Hindu Kush, cradle of the Ghurid sultans and home of the Minaret of Jam.
Central Afghanistan

Parwan

A mountain gateway north of Kabul, where the Ghorband and Panjshir rivers meet near ancient Begram and vineyards surround Charikar.
Northern Afghanistan

Faryab

A province of Uzbek and Turkmen market towns, from Maymana to the carpet-weaving oasis of Andkhoy, named after a lost medieval city.
Northern Afghanistan

Sar-e Pol

Mountain valleys and river oases south of Sheberghan, whose capital probably stands on the site of Anbar, a medieval princely seat.
Western Afghanistan

Badghis

Rolling hills and pistachio woodland north of Herat, between the Paropamisus range and the Morghab river, home of the Jamshidi and other Aymaq.
Northern Afghanistan

Samangan

Hill country between Balkh and the Hindu Kush, home to the rock-cut stupa of Takht-e Rostam and to the Samangan of Shahnameh legend.
Northern Afghanistan

Jowzjan

A northern plain of Turkmen and Uzbek villages, the old Gowzgan of the Farighunid princes, where the Bactrian gold of Tillya Tepe was found.
North-eastern Afghanistan

Kunduz

A low, fertile river plain on the Amu Darya, once part of ancient Bactria and later the heart of Afghanistan’s cotton country.